More Meanness from Mean Mister Brownsville~Scattered Thoughts

When I saw Brownsville Herald reporter Steve Clark at the Brownsville Planning Organization meeting March 14, I fully expected some coverage of that event in the daily. But, as with so many important local stories, the local paper was mum(at least in the online edition and its archives). Brownsville and Cameron County may have dodged a bigger bullet than just the $179,000,000 the toll road was supposed to cost. HNTB, the huge firm set to build the road, was also the main contractor for the Sports Park. They are notorious for overruns. The federal government currently wants $9,000,000 of federal funds recovered from the state of Texas because of mismanagement of HNTB contracts. Several of the firm's contracts with the state more than doubled the initial bid. Cameron County might have been on the hook for $350,000,000 for the unneeded tollway.

A tiny observation about forums like the BMPO chaired by Mayor Tony Martinez at the Mary Yturria room of the Historic Brownsville Museum: It is nearly useless to hold a forum in a room with poor acoustics. Several venues in Brownsville fit that description and are unsuitable for important discussions effecting the future of our community. The VFW hall and the lobby of the Amigoland Event Center come to mind. Hard surfaces like tile floors with hard walls tend to bounce sound waves like crazy.

The Republican Candidate Forum at the VICC Las Fuentes Room, also on March 14, suffered in a different way. VICC buildings tend to have HVAC problems. As a former employee of the old Valley Inn Motel in the 60's, let's just say the problem is historic. This forum also suffered from a very amateurish moderator in State Representative candidate Alex Torres. Torres fumbled nearly every question without enough enunciation or sense stress to make them understandable. Norma Tovar, who must have phrased the questions, shouted corrections from across the room. No sound system was utilized.

The Republicans have three strong candidates: Adela Garza and Jessica Puente Bradshaw for Congress, Chuck Mattingly for District Attorney. Garza has much respect in the community for her work as a UTB/TSC trustee. Young Ms. Bradshaw, born in Matamoros, has a great command of issues well known to Republicans and the Tea Party. Mattingly lists in dramatic fashion the criminals he has sent to prison locally as a prosecutor and their sentences.

Elderly congressional candidate Paul B. Herring drove down from Goliad to participate in the forum. A district gerrymandered around his hometown might not be enough of an advantage for Mr. Herring. He is simply a single issue candidate. As he stated: "If you oppose abortion, I'm your man." He also believes President Obama's birth certificate was forged. Herring handed out black and white copies of his platform

PS: One question which I couldn't totally decipher seemed to be about which freedom was most important: Adela Garza said she couldn't pick just one. Mr. Herring said it would be freedom of religion. Jessica Puente Bradshaw said it was the right to bear arms. That gives us a bit of insight into the thinking of the candidates.